Ter Petrosian Breaks Silence
Yesterday was Independence Day, but for most election commentators and observers another event eclipsed the free concert that was staged in Yerevan’s Republic Square. Two hours earlier at the Armenia Marriott Hotel, the former ruling Pan Armenian National Movement (HHSh) held a reception to mark the 16th anniversary of Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union, but everyone was waiting for the event to mark another potentially historic moment — the return of the first president of the Republic of Armenia, Levon Ter Petrosian, to politics ahead of the 2008 presidential election.
He didn’t disappoint, it has to be said, and made his first public speech in nearly a decade although he stopped short of making any decision on whether to run against the prime minister, Serzh Sarkisian, in next year’s vote. Even so, the packed Tigran Metz ballroom in the Marriott Hotel greeted Ter Petrosian with rapturous applause and chants of “Levon, Levon, Levon…” He might not have made a decision yet, but the event seemed more like the launch of a presidential election campaign than not.
RFE/RL reports on the reception.
Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian broke his nearly decade-long silence Friday with an unusually harsh attack on the current authorities in Yerevan which he branded “criminal and corrupt” and accused of turning Armenia into a “third world country.”
Making his first public speech since his dramatic resignation in 1998, Ter-Petrosian said he has still not decided whether or not participate in the upcoming presidential election. He also reiterated his belief that Armenia’s sustainable development is impossible without a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the opening of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey.
“I have not made a decision yet,” Ter-Petrosian told hundreds of admiring and expectant loyalists who gathered at a Yerevan hotel to celebrate the 16th anniversary of Armenia’s independence. “I am still examining, weighing up, considering things. My approach is purely political. I can’t be guided by emotions. Adventurism is alien to my character.”
“Until I know the effectiveness of my would-be steps, I won’t take steps. Of course, there is a change of atmosphere, a change of mood but in my view, but it has not yet, so to speak, come to a boil,” he said.
[…]
Ter-Petrosian further accused the Kocharian administration of rigging elections, trampling on laws, extorting bribes from businessmen, illegally influencing courts and restricting press freedom.
Critics of the former Armenian leadership will counter that Armenia lacked rule of law and independent courts and broadcast media even before Kocharian came to power. They believe that the culture of electoral fraud emerged in the country during Ter-Petrosian’s eight-year rule.
None of the elections held in Armenia at the time were judged free and fair by international observers. In fact, Ter-Petrosian sent troops to the streets of Yerevan in September 1996 to quell violent opposition protests against the official results of a reputedly rigged presidential election that gave victory to the incumbent.
Well, there’s no doubt that there’s plenty to criticize the former president for and not least for sowing the seeds of corruption and falsified elections that Armenia is still paying the price for today. However, none of that appeared to cross the minds of those in attendance at the event, and it was certainly interesting to examine the makeup of the invited guests.
Ohan Durian and Levon Ter Petrosian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007
From opposition party leaders such as Raffi Hovannisian, Stepan Demirchian and Aram Sarkisian through activists from the Sksela youth movement and journalists from Hetq Online and A1 Plus there in a non-reporting capacity, and from Tim Straight, Honorary Norwegian and Finnish Consul to Armenia, to other European diplomatic representatives, Ter Petrosian can still apparently demand respect on a major public holiday. And this is what is most remarkable about mention of Ter Petrosian’s name in the context of the presidential election.
After the event, for example, I spoke to a number of young and educated Armenians at a local bar who also openly said that if next year’s vote was a choice between Sarkisian and Ter Petrosian, they would have no hesitation in voting for the latter. I’ve also heard this said by others as well who are now apparently willing to put down the “indiscretions” of the Ter Petrosian regime to the situation the country found itself in at the time.
Blockaded by Azerbaijan and Turkey in the middle of a war with the former, conditions in the country “were to be expected,” they say.
And for the international community, Ter Petrosian was always considered a more sophisticated player in terms of diplomacy and attempts to resolve the conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh. Ironically, this was the main issue that forced Ter Petrosian to resign in 1998 although one that might also endear him to the West again. Some even argue that while Ter Petrosian was willing to sign a concessionary deal with Azerbaijan, Armenia’s position was much stronger then than it is now.
Some also believe that the proposed peace agreement still being negotiated by Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly bears an uncanny resemblance to the one that saw him leave office.
Ter-Petrosian added that he thinks the “greatest crime” committed by Kocharian and Sarkisian was their failure to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He said Azerbaijan is less and less prepared to make concessions to the Armenian side because of its mounting oil revenues. “From now on they will not agree to any concessions. I don’t know what needs to be done to get out of this situation,” he said.
Ter-Petrosian was forced to step down by his key ministers, including Kocharian and Sarkisian, after publicly advocating an internationally drafted peace plan that called for a gradual settlement of the Karabakh conflict indefinitely delaying agreement on the disputed territory’s status. His hard-line opponents rejected the proposed plan as “defeatist,” demanding that the international mediators come up with a package peace deal that would uphold Karabakh’s secession from Azerbaijan. But this did not prevent them from embracing the mediators’ existing proposals that have a lot in common with the ones advocated by Ter-Petrosian.
Ter-Petrosian complained that many Armenians still do not think that their and their country’s prosperity is contingent on Karabakh peace. “Unless there is such understanding, I think nothing should be done and we should sit in our homes and see Armenia into a third world country whose sole capital is export of labor,” he said.
What’s most interesting, however, is that whatever criticism can be made of Ter Petrosian’s time as president, most analysts and observers believe that there is so far no opposition party leader that stands a chance of challenging the prime minister in next year’s vote. HHSh, however, argue that Levon Ter Petrosian is the only figure that could — and they might have a point. Many of today’s businessmen and political figures in government and opposition started out under Ter Petrosian, he has sympathetic supporters in civil society, and the West would certainly welcome his return.
What remains uncertain is to what extent does the population dislike Serzh Sarkisyan and the “Karabakh clan” enough to consider the need for Ter Petrosian’s return. For sure, if a post on Cilicia.com’s Life in Armenia is anything to go by, some of those Diasporans living and doing business in Armenia surely don’t.
Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian broke his nearly decade-long silence Friday with an unusually harsh attack on the current authorities in Yerevan which he branded “criminal and corrupt” and accused of turning Armenia into a “third world country.”
This statement is only laughable because he was actually set the precedent for criminal and corrupt regimes in Armenia!
Levon Ter Petrosian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007
Local youth activists such as Bekaisa, however, obviously don’t share the same opinion and even posts a link to a new web site set up after yesterday’s event — Levon for President. Arguments for his return from such circles were detailed in a recent Armenia Now article on Armenia’s Independence.
Aram Manukyan of the Armenian All-National Movement board sees independence as a house with several columns – those of institutes, foreign and domestic ties, democracy and human psychology. Columns should be founded on the law and the roof is the mind and the will of the people and the authorities.
[…]
“The wrong foreign policy has resulted in a formation of coalition of hostile countries that creates a network where Armenia won’t be included in the future,” says Manukyan. “Georgia does not like Armenia. We are in such a hopeless situation with Azerbaijan that there are only militaristic statements made. In the relations with Turkey we beat only about the Genocide, and cannot therefore be reconciled. There was only Iran remaining but it made friends with Turkey; as a result our relations worsened.”
[…]
Former officials accuse the incumbent authorities in the creation of a clan system in the years of independence:
“And the Armenian people live in that system waiting for money from the United States and Russia, when the same system tries to steal 50 percent of the money,” Manukyan depicts the situation.
“In the years of independence a monopolized and therefore uncompetitive economics was formed: there is only one person engaged in the import of granulated sugar and fuel (meaning the Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan) and so on. Also a juridical nihilism has been formed as a result of which no citizen can feel protected today. Judges do what they want and how they want,” says Manukyan.
But for all the problems faced by Armenia today, opponents of the former president perhaps have more ammunition to argue against Ter Petrosian’s return.
Manukyan’s words are confirmed and at the same time scoffed by young political scientists who recall the torture and murder cases in 1991-1998 when the leader of the Armenian All-National Movement Levon Ter-Petrosyan was the president of Armenia.
In those years the State Security Committee head Marius Yuzbashyan, Railroad director Hambardzum Ghandilyan, former mayor of Yerevan Hambardzum Galstyan and others were assassinated, when grounds for dictatorial means of fight against dissidents like mass arrests were created and the oligarchic culture with criminal fame was formed.
Others will also point to the banning of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutiun (ARF-D), now part of the coalition government, and the energy shortage of the early 1990s. Even so, one thing that HHSh and Ter Petrosian did offer the country’s political system was ideology — something that arguably only the ARF-D have central to their activity today. Interestingly, rather than oppose the return of their old foe, Armenia Now reports that the ARF-D might actually welcome it.
“We are not against this person or that. We are not looking for enemies in this country. On the contrary, we want – in the name of something – everyone to unite. Let them say to us that the issues you think of are not for something, are against something, there are no such questions, you have wrongfully expressed the situation, please, let’s sit down and have a debate, let’s debate over a subject, issues, and not debate in order to diminish and sling mud at one another,” Rustamyan says.
The ARF welcomes all political forces that will really come forward with their approaches, differences and will turn the pre-election struggle into a political and ideological one. It is important since it is the only way against malpractices during electoral processes. And if these malpractices remain, then the reproduction of the authorities is indeed a foregone conclusion.
Dashnaktsutyun has a positive attitude towards ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s possible nomination as a candidate in the 2008 presidential election.
“Moreover, I’d say that it would be even better, let him get the nomination. Of course, it is ten years that we haven’t heard Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s complete opinions, don’t know what changes he has undergone. Nevertheless, knowing him, I know that after all when we were opposition there were two main ideologies in the Armenian reality – one was national, the other was that rejecting the national, cosmopolitan, or an internationalist approach,” Rustamyan says.
Still, whatever is being said about of Ter Petrosian’s possible return, the only thing that’s clear is that he has yet to make a public announcement confirming or denying his intent. Until then, it is also obvious that just as many view the prime minister as the most likely contender for the presidency from the government side, Ter Petrosian is fast becoming the number one choice from the opposition. Although no statement of intent was made yesterday, such an announcement is still expected.
For sure, whatever he decides will determine the conduct and outcome of next year’s election more so than perhaps any other event. And while political commentators and election observers wait for news of his decision, video reports of yesterday’s reception are available here. The Armenian Observer also has an extensive post on Ter Petrosian’s speech at the Marriott yesterday.
Levon Ter Petrosian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007
- Published:
- 09.22.07 / 3pm by Onnik
- Category:
- Armenia Presidential Election 2008, Candidates, Diaspora, Nagorno Karabakh, Parties, Photojournalism
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